ILSE Naudé, who died last week aged 98, was for much of her life a junior partner of her illustrious anti-apartheid husband, Beyers Naudé, who famously left the Dutch Reformed Church at a time when Afrikaner clergy were more interested in racial hegemony than heaven.

While happy to play a supporting role in the political arena, Ilse was a fiercely independent figure whose views on social justice often went unnoticed.

Though she was not always recognised for her activism, her status as an anti-apartheid stalwart was underscored by Nelson Mandela, who mentioned her on the occasion of his 80th birthday: "If someone asks me what a new South African should be, I will say, 'Look at Beyers and his wife, Ilse.'"

While many refer to Ilse's days in the shadow of her more celebrated husband, her early life in the shadows of the Riviersonderend Mountains at a remote Moravian mission station were equally influential.

Her missionary father worked closely with dispersed Khoisan communities, bringing her into contact with a world far removed from the supremacist views prevalent in white society at the beginning of the 20th century.

She excelled at school and received a bursary for Stellenbosch University, where she completed a BSc, followed by simultaneous master's degrees in maths and education, graduating with distinctions in both. She was an active member of the mountain hiking club. Given her great love of the outdoors, it was only fitting that she should meet the love of her life on a mountain excursion.

She and Beyers were married at the mission station in Genadendal in 1940 and remained married for 64 years until his death in 2004.

Their early years together were spent moving from parish to parish, starting in Wellington in the Western Cape, then Loxton in the Karoo, Pretoria South and Pretoria East, finally settling in Johannesburg. It was while serving as the dominee of the Aasvoëlkop congregation that Beyers decided he could no longer condone apartheid in the name of the church. In 1963, he left the fold and founded the interracial Christian Institute of Southern Africa.

Despite her husband's Damascene conversion to non-racial religion, Ilse remained a Dutch Reformed Church member. It was not their only disagreement. She also refused to leave South Africa when Beyers was offered a university post overseas. However, the couple were not the kind to be bothered by a mere difference of opinion, according to their son Johann, one of their four children: "In the 64 years of their marriage, they had disagreements, but they were still in love as much as ever."

He said the fact that they were able to rejoin the Aasvoëlkop congregation after the advent of democratic rule was testimony to their gritty resolve, both political and religious: "The biggest fact that they rejoiced at was that, at the end of the day, they both came full circle to go back to the Church."

Ilse's strength of conviction was well known to those closest to her, according to the couple's former pastor, Dr Andre Bartlett: "I got to know her in the mid-1990s, when they came back as members of this church. She was, in a certain sense, a very simple person, unassuming, without any intimations of greatness. A very caring person, deeply religious, but also highly intelligent, she could hold her own in any discussion."

Ilse remained an avid hiker for much of her life, a passion that she claimed explained her longevity. She also avoided medicines of any kind, turning to them only in the last six months of her life.

Professor Nico Koopman, director of the Beyers Naudé Centre for Public Theology and dean of the theology faculty at Stellenbosch University, said Ilse was a major influence in her husband's life: "They were very close. Friendships with Beyers Naudé were also friendships with Ilse Naudé."

As the couple aged, Beyers expressed concern that his wife should be properly cared for after his death. Said Koopman: "From my last visit to them on May 10 of the year he died, I remember how he said, 'Please, please, all of you, when I'm gone, please look after Ilse.' He was so concerned about her. "

Eddie Makue, former general secretary of the South African Council of Churches, said: "I knew her as a mother to us young people who were struggling to discern how best we could serve justice. She was the person that always ensured that we felt welcome in the Naudé household."